WWUTT 573 For the Ungodly and the Sinners?

Is it necessary for a person to hear the gospel in order to be saved?

Yes.

It is also necessary for you to have a knowledge of your sin. For if you don't know that you have sinned against God, what has He saved you from? When We Understand the Text.

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Thank you, Becky. Hey, my voice is doing a lot better today, as you can tell by the sound of it. I'm not totally 100%, but I should be able to make it through the full devotion today. So let's go to 1 Timothy 1, verses 8 through 11 again.

As Paul writes to his servant Timothy,. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

So Paul's saying we know the law is good. We've talked about that twice now this week, emphasizing the meaning behind that Monday and Tuesday. And then if one uses it lawfully, I mentioned this a little bit yesterday, but it kind of put a fine point on it a little bit more today.

So using it lawfully means what? Well, I had read to you in a very hoarse voice from Romans chapter 3, and it's there in verses 19 and 20, I think, is the best place in Scripture to find an understanding of the use of the law.

We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped. So again, this is where Paul is saying to Timothy, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

It's not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient. So here in Romans 3 .19, he's made that point before. The law speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped.

A person is not able to proclaim their own righteousness when they hear by the law just how sinful they are, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.

So again, nobody can keep the law to earn righteousness or right standing with God, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. That's what the law is going to do for the mind of the person that is under the law.

It will bring them to a knowledge of sin. It's not going to bring them to righteousness. It is going to bring them to an awareness of their sin. What then brings them to righteousness? Well, that's Christ.

Jesus is the one who is righteous and clothes in his righteousness. The Holy Spirit convicts the person of their sin when they hear the law, so that they become knowledgeable, conscious of the sin that is within their hearts and their need for a Savior.

They have broken the law of God. They know what they deserve for that. Like, we know that the wages of sin is death. Because remember what is said at the end of Romans 1, verse 32. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die.

In other words, everyone inherently knows. This is something that everybody knows. Everyone knows that breaking the law of the God of the entire universe, the creator of all things, is not going to go well with you.

Everybody knows that. So they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things, who practice what is contrary to God's law, deserve to die. They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

Why? Because their foolish hearts are darkened. As Paul had explained earlier in chapter 1, verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. It's been revealed from heaven.

Like, we know, once again, we know that the wages of sin is death. In the book of Galatians it says that we will sow what we reap. We understand that there are consequences for our behavior. That bad behavior produces bad consequences.

Good behavior, you don't have to face the consequences. We know this. We know the ebb and flow of things. If you're going to run through a stoplight, you're running a risk. Either somebody is going to plow into the side of you, or a police officer is going to give you a ticket.

Or you get both. Somebody will plow into the side of you and a police officer is going to give you a ticket. So there are consequences for bad behavior. We know that breaking the law brings about consequences.

So this is the wrath of God revealed from heaven. There is a wrath of God that's not like cataclysmic wrath. It's not the eschatological wrath. But the very fact that the judgment of God is exercised every day on those who practice bad behavior.

I think it's Psalm 711 that says that God is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day. So every day there are people who pay for their sins. Radical sins that they have committed against God.

We know this. We can observe this in all of creation all around us. So the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So why is it that everybody is walking around believing he's right in his own eyes if we know and can observe there are consequences for bad behavior, if we know that when we have broken the law of the creator of the universe, what we deserve for that is death.

When we know these things, why are there still people walking around doing those things? Because by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth. All of that is explained in the book of Romans. Verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them.

Like it's already just been said to us in the previous verse. We even know the wrath of God. It's been revealed from heaven. What can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Once again, they knew God, but did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.

But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. So unbelief, rebellion, sin, all of these flow from an ungrateful heart. At the root of all sin is ingratitude. It is not being thankful to God for what he's given to you.

You think you need this other thing in order to be fully satisfied and in order to be happy. It's saying to God, I know better than you do, the creator of all things and the lawgiver of all things. I know better than you what's good for me.

And so I'm going to do this thing in rebellion against what you have said that I should do to display love to you. Because that's what our obedience to God is showing. It is showing our love for God. That's what Jesus said to his disciples.

You'll show me you love me when you obey my commands. This is why God gave Adam and Eve the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there in the Garden of Eden. It wasn't because the fruit had some sort of magical darkness or dark magic to it.

That if they ate this fruit, it was just going to infect everything with sin because God was the one that subjected all things to futility. The reason why he gave that command, Adam and Eve, was so that they would know the joy of obeying God.

And they would be able to show by their actions a love and an affection and an appreciation in their worship, showing appreciation to God for all that he had given to them. I am fully satisfied in everything that you have given to me and the very fact that I have the presence of God that I can walk with in the cool of the day.

I don't need this fruit. I'm satisfied in everything. You tell me not to eat it. Great. And that was the command that God had given to Adam and Eve. And it was yet that one command because they were ungrateful for all they had been given.

I mean, the more that you study this, the more you realize the weight, the measure of ridiculousness that eating from that tree actually was. That Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Just how evil it was that they did that. When they had all of creation and God even giving them the assignment to grow the garden, to expand it. That was the that was the command to Adam to work the garden and be fruitful.

And the command Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, not just in having children, but that they would cover the whole earth with this garden paradise of Eden. And yet, though the whole earth had been given to them by God, they they rejected all of that and said, no, we got to have the one thing that you told us we can't have.

We are not satisfied with everything that you have given to us. We have to take matters into our own hands. And that is the great blasphemy against the creator of the universe. That is why all things were subjected to futility.

And yet those who don't have an awareness or an understanding of sin in that way, they read that story in Genesis chapter three and they're looking at it going, what's the big deal? They ate fruit off of a tree and suddenly they deserve to die.

Are you crazy? What a monstrous God that is, that he would subject that he would cause death and cancer and massive tornadoes and hurricanes and earthquakes just because a woman listened to a snake and then gave that fruit to her husband and he ate it.

And they they knew they knew that they had sinned against God, that they had rebelled against God. And just because they did that. God would then subject the world to the chaos and the evil that it is under right now, the fallen state that it is in.

That's the kind of attitude we have when we don't see the seriousness of our sin. When we when we think that God owes us something, we're continuing to blaspheme and we're continuing to share in that same sin that Adam and Eve committed in the garden when we think it's no big deal because Adam and Eve didn't think it was a big deal either.

That's why they ate from the tree. They listened to the creation rather than the creator. And thus all of the world was subjected to futility. Blows my mind, blows my mind. And I'm saying that as I'm sitting here just staring at the scriptures, blows my mind that we are really that depraved.

And yet God is really that merciful and gracious to forgive us our sin, our rebellion against God and send his own son, holy and perfect, who left his throne in heaven and took on our flesh in the likeness of sinful men and lived perfectly, became our substitute even in his own life.

Not just his death, but in his life, lived the life for us that we couldn't live and then died a death. We all should die, not just death on a cross, but suffering the wrath of God, because that's what Jesus endured on the cross.

The wrath of God poured into him that he absorbed by his sinless spilled blood. And so he took all of our sin upon himself and close us in his righteousness. The the the incredibleness of the mercy of God in the cross.

I featured a quote yesterday on Twitter from James White. He said God's wrath is part of God's glory, because if you look at the cross and don't see the wrath of God against sin, you are not seeing the love of God there either.

And that's a good point to come back into talking about the law here, because that's the point of sharing the law with somebody that they would see their sin and that the wrath of God is burning against all unrighteousness and their need for a savior, Jesus Christ, who shed his blood because God loves us.

So we sent his son to die for us, that all who would believe in him will not perish under the wrath of God, but will be saved and have everlasting life. And so that's that's why we share with somebody the law.

So they come to a knowledge of sin. They come to an awareness of sin, just as it just as I'm pointing out in the story of the Garden of Eden, that we would read that story and we would see the sinfulness of man against God.

And those who don't see the sinfulness of man against God, they they look at that story and they see it as ridiculousness. You know, the point that Paul makes in First Corinthians one eighteen, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So if God means to save the person who has heard the law of God spoken to them and revealing to them their sinfulness and need for a savior, they will truly be convicted for the sins that they have committed against God.

And then the heart is conditioned to hear the gospel. This is what Paul means when he says the law is good. If one uses it lawfully, they use it in that way that Paul explains the law should be used in Romans three verses 19 and 20.

It exposes sin. It stops the mouth, stops a person from being able to proclaim their own righteousness. They become aware of their sin and need for a savior. And then after Paul has been preaching all of this law in Romans chapters one and two and halfway through chapter three, then he gets to the next part of chapter three where he is presenting the gospel.

And this is what starts what he starts presenting in Romans three twenty one. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

And so then so that's the gospel. You've got law in Romans one to midway through chapter three, and then he presents the gospel. He resolves the presentation of the law with the gospel. Whereas in First Timothy chapter one, Paul talks about certain persons having swerved from the declaration of the gospel.

They desire to be teachers of the law, but they don't do it right because in teaching the law, they are actually burdening a person with a list of things that they actually can't accomplish and will not bring about righteousness.

Do this, do this, do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. And, you know, the the sermons that you'll hear that are like five ways to a better marriage. If that sermon is not preceded by or ends with the gospel or bookended by it.

So you start with the gospel. You end with the gospel. And then an understanding about how you love your spouse flows from your understanding of how God loves you through the cross, through the sacrifice, through sacrifice of his son.

You sacrifice yourself for your significant other. You lay your life down for them. You put yourself aside so that you could consider their needs ahead of your own. That's that's that's understanding how you love your spouse through the gospel.

If the gospel isn't there, then all you're doing with a with a message or a sermon like that is you're just burdening a person with a list of things that they can't actually ever pull off. They'll even write them all down in the bulletin.

Number one, number two, number three, number four, number five. They'll go home. They'll try to they'll try to do it today and they will fail today. And yet the gospel has not been given to them to understand that when they fail, we have an advocate before the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is speaking favorably for us before God so that we might come to Christ and ask forgiveness for our sins.

And he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And by his grace, we are able to continue to press forward, being sanctified by his grace and mercy, growing in holiness and getting better at loving our significant other when we're not really good at it today.

So, again, all of this flowing from the gospel and when a person is not when a preacher is not putting the gospel in their sermon, they're just weighing down with law. So they desire to be teachers of the law, which they do horribly.

And so they use it unlawfully. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not laid down for the just. We're not giving a list of here's what you got to do in order to be this to Christians.

A good preacher who understands law and gospel will not burden their congregation that way. But those who don't understand, that's all they do with all their messages. That's all they do. They just burden the hearer.

We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding this. It's not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient. So me, when I'm standing in the pulpit and I tell a person to repent and follow Christ, I'm going to say, hey, you strike your father and mother.

Repent of that. Follow Jesus. He'll forgive you of your sin. Are you someone who is a murderer? Explaining, you know, the context of murdering in your heart in Matthew chapter five. If you hate somebody, if you have bitterness toward somebody, you're not forgiving somebody else.

You would rather hold on to that bitterness that you have for somebody else. You're murdering them in your heart. Same thing. Same sin. You are just as bad as a person who is on death row. You are going to face God in judgment for that, and he will judge you for the murder that you've committed in your heart.

Are you sexually immoral? If you are having any kind of sex outside of the bond of marriage, the covenant of marriage that you are supposed to be enjoying with your spouse, any kind of sex outside of that is immorality.

It is outside what God has created sex to be.

Repent.

Ask for God's forgiveness. He will forgive you. Walk in righteousness. Ask for a new heart that you won't think about sex that way anymore. But with your whole body, Romans 12 one, present yourself as a living sacrifice unto the Lord.

Those who practice homosexuality. Same thing. Can a person be a homosexual and still get to heaven?

No.

Can you be forgiven of this sin?

Yes.

First Corinthians chapter six verses nine through eleven, where Paul says, some of you used to walk in these sins, but you have been washed by the spirit of our God and by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He will forgive your sin. So ask for forgiveness, and he will give you a new heart that you would not chase after these sins anymore, but desire with your whole body to worship him in righteousness. Have you ever lied before?

Have you ever broken the law before? Have you ever considered yourself better than the law that these things shouldn't apply to you, but you should be able to do whatever it is that makes you happy? Then you have sinned.

You have sinned in your heart against God, and you need a Savior. And Christ is the one who has paid your sin debt, has bought you by his blood. So if you belong to Christ, you can no longer walk in that sinfulness.

Instead, follow him in his righteousness, and you will be saved. You will receive a kingdom that is imperishable. All of this world will be destroyed. God will judge it with fire from heaven and purge all evil and unrighteousness that has been exercised on this planet since the fall of man.

The only way that you can be saved, that you can be sure you will have resurrection from the grave, is if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will forgive your sin, and he will give you a new heart and a new mind to worship him and be clothed in his righteousness.

That's using the law in a lawful way, and that is resolving the tension that is caused by the law in the heart of a person who hears it with the gospel, so that they might worship God. They would know their sin and praise him for his mercy and grace.

So next week, we're then going to get into the section that starts at verse 12. We get one of the most blessed passages of scripture in verse 15, where Paul says,. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

That's knowledge of your sin and of the mercy and grace of God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the salvation that we've been given in Christ our Lord. And I pray that in light of this wonderful, merciful, loving sacrifice that we would desire to live our whole lives, heart, soul, mind, body, spirit, everything to the glory of our God who has saved us.

Help us to walk in this righteousness and continue to entrust ourselves to him who judges justly. And just as our understanding of the gospel, having heard the gospel and put faith in Jesus Christ, has saved us from our sin.

So may we also declare the gospel to others that they might turn from sin and be saved by this wonderful, blessed gift of God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt .com.